Diabetes and life insurance

This topic has been discussed before but its an important topic so I wanted to bring it up again.

What have been your experiences applying for life insurance since diagnosed with diabetes? From what I understand it doesn’t appear that insurers make any distinction between subtypes of diabetes…

Have you applied for a term policy since having the ‘D’ label? did it cause you a lot of grief? Were you denied coverage because of it? Were you pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went and issued a policy with only slightly higher premium? Interested to hear all different experiences.

1 Like

Really? on a forum full of adults with diabetes nobody has applied for a life insurance policy?

I’ll try to prime the pump…

My workplace offers group plans, and open enrollment is approaching. This year they raised the maximum level of optional life insurance through the group plan quite a bit-- adding two additional coverage levels of 200k and 300k. Both of these higher coverage levels now require “proof of insurability.” I dug into it a bit-- and it seems quite different from private life insurance policies I’ve applied for in the past. Basically the “proof of insurability” is just a questionnaire about whether or not you have any history of any medical condition… numerous things were on the list, including diabetes. Then it basically just said that if you answered yes to any of those questions you weren’t eligible… it also required you allow access to your medical records. All of the lower coverage policies through the same group plan don’t require any of this-- so I’ll opt for the max that doesn’t require this.

This got me thinking, and led me to my own insurance companies website… where they offer instant quotes for various levels of life insurance policies… I already have pre-D policies with them as well… so they are actually somewhat customized quotes based on your previous history… the going through their instant quotes it appeared that diabetes wouldn’t pose any real challenges for a policy, but the price tag would be approximately twice as much… of course those are just the instant quotes and when you actually apply they will make you do a full physical, blood draws, review medical records, etc…

So I’m wondering if any of you have experience applying for term life insurance and following the process all the way through to completion to get a policy since you’ve had diabetes.,… how’d it go for you?

Thanks in advance… I often think that one thing that people with all sorts of health conditions lack in this world is financial guidance that specifically fits them, and their health situation— I hope that gets better eventually…

1 Like

Well I have never “applied” for one. I carry one offered from employer and carried over when I left. What has been your experience, Sam?

1 Like

All of my experience actually “applying” for individual term policies comes from before diabetes… and was unremarkable. Apply for the policy, they usually have some sort of medical person who is contracted by the insurer call you and go through a pretty long questionnaire of your medical history, ask things like if you travel to dangerous parts of the world, what hobbies you participate in (scuba diving, bungee jumping, flying small planes etc were specifically asked I think) what you do for a living…etc

then you have to grant them access to your medical records, then they often either refer you to a lab/clinic for a blood draw and a physical or they sometimes even have a nurse come to your house and draw your blood, weigh you, check your BP, etc— of course just trying to make sure that they have a reasonable basis for determining which ballpark “risk” group you belong to and pricing your policy accordingly… whereas in group plans (like your work) they charge everyone the same rate or just adjust it based on age usually (as far as I know)

1 Like

You are so right. It is a very important subject. It is much on my mind since a family member’s illness just entered the picture. So I can’t contribute, but I am following the discussion!..Thanks for getting the ball rolling…Judith

I have a call scheduled with a “financial advisor” on Tuesday regarding this subject. I put that term in quotes because they are a representative of the insurance company— not a fee based individual advisor which is currently the purest sense of the term. Will update following that.

1 Like

I know that my employer provides life insurance that is guaranteed issue. I had to (initially) disclose my health but I would not be denied (and in my case I would not be rated to a higher premium). In most cases if you die within a short time after the issue of the policy you just get back your premiums, thus deterring people with terminal conditions from trying to scam the system with guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue is also provided for small amounts of life insurance as a way of enticing you to a bigger policy.

You should check whether your employer provided insurance is guaranteed. And if it is not guaranteed you need to understand that you may be “rated” (non preferred at higher premium) depending on your answers to the questions. In general, having well controlled diabetes is not considered a reason to deny life insurance. In the case of insurance off the street it may or may not result in non-preferred rates but in employer plans you have an even better chance of just being approved at preferred rates.

1 Like

My understanding is that the policies offered by my work are guaranteed issue up to 100,000… Fixed rates depending on age, no questions asked. The 200 and 300k policy they just started to offer is fixed rate depending on age, but they’ll deny you if you have any red flags at all, including diabetes—

Wheras with private insurance they’ll actually try to price a policy appropriately to the individual, these particular group plans are just a “yes or no” type arrangement… So I’ll sign up for the 100 through the group plan. And hope to get an individualized quote here through the private insurance soon.

I’m not sure if it is nationwide or state by state— but the last time I purchased a private policy there was a “2 year contestability period”. Meaning that if I died within 2 years and they could prove that it was caused by something that was lied about in the policy application, they pay nothing---- for example if one lies about smoking then dies of lung cancer---- but the contestability wouldn’t apply if the application was fair and accurate — like if I applied and then got hit by s car the next day or had a heart attack when all of my medical info was factual and accurate and they had opportunity to review it fairly, they’d still have to pay even within the two year period

1 Like

Hi, @Terry4.

I’m not sure I follow your post here, unless there was perhaps a trolling post that has since been deleted.

Surely you’re not referring to the op, @sam19 here, are you?

There was a removed response that had to do with someone pitching a service in this thread. Not in reference to Sam.

1 Like

Sorry for the confusion, @isthatapersonalchefs. The moderators identified the comment I replied to as spam. It was deleted and now my comment is out of context. No, this had nothing to do with Sam.

2 Likes